Korean biopharma, biotech companies scale up as sales balloon

South Korea’s biotech and biopharmaceutical companies are growing big with their sales rising above 1 trillion won ($796 million) last year on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A growing number of Korean biopharma firms ranging from biosimilar companies to contract drug makers, test kit makers and device manufacturers have joined the 1 trillion won sales club – an indication of their enhanced competitiveness in the biopharmaceutical industry, analysts said.

According to Financial Supervisory Service data, Osstem Implant Co., a dental implant maker, posted 1.05 trillion won in sales last year. The figure marks its first sales of more than 1 trillion won since its inception 25 years ago.

The company became the world’s top seller of dental implants in 2021 after spending 11% of its annual revenue on research and development for years to advance its technology.

The Korean company ranks top in the Chinese implant market, which is expanding at an average annual growth rate of 30%.

“The medical device market has been neglected because of its relatively smaller size compared with the novel therapeutic market. Osstem’s decent sales will change people’s thoughts on the implants market,” said an analyst at a local brokerage.

SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS JOINS THE 3 TRILLION WON SALES CLUB

Samsung Biologics Co., which posted more than 1 trillion won in sales in 2020, joined the 3 trillion won sales club last year.

Samsung, the world’s largest contract drugmaker, which produces drugs for others in a scheme known as a contract manufacturing organization (CMO), said its performance was buoyed by its biosimilar affiliate Samsung Bioepis Co.

Samsung Biologics, the biotech unit of Korea’s top business group, opened its fourth contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) factory, the world’s largest on a single site, last October and plans to build a fifth plant in Songdo, Incheon, west of Seoul.

The company said last year it will double its manufacturing capacity by building four additional plants worth 7 trillion won to become the world’s leader in both the CMO and CDO businesses.

Korea is already home to the world’s leading contract drug manufacturers, including Samsung Biologics.

Celltrion Inc., a leading biosimilar drugmaker, is estimated to have posted record sales of more than 2 trillion won last year.

Globally, the company is known for Truxima, a blood cancer treatment, and Remsima, a treatment for autoimmune diseases.

Celltrion controls more than half the biosimilar market of Janssen's Remicade in Europe with its Remsima monoclonal antibody biosimilar. Remsima’s US market share stands at about 30%.

TOP SELLER OF COVID-19 TEST KITS

SD Biosensor Inc., which became the world’s largest COVID-19 test kit seller during the pandemic, is estimated to have posted nearly 3 trillion won in 2022 sales.

According to market tracker FnGuide, the Korean diagnostic reagent maker’s revenue is forecast to drop to 1.3 trillion won this year as the pandemic eases.

Conventional drugmakers such as Yuhan Corp., Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Green Cross Corp., Chong Kun Dand Pharmaceutical Corp., Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. and Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical Co. are also expected to post 2022 sales of over 1 trillion won.

LG Chem Life Sciences, the biopharmaceutical unit of LG Chem Ltd., posted 909 billion won in sales last year and is widely expected to join the 1 trillion won club this year, helped by LG’s acquisition of a US biotech firm last year.

Last October, LG Chem bought the entire stake in AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Nasdaq-listed US biotech firm, for $566 million.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, AVEO is known for Fotivda (tivozanib), approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.